Pats’ draft pick O’Connell happy to get feet wet

Monday

Apr 28, 2008 at 12:01 AMApr 28, 2008 at 9:45 AM

Glen Farley

San Diego State quarterback Kevin O’Connell is more than willing to become a member of New England’s Brady bunch.

“I think with the situations that have happened in the NFL, I think, teams are starting to go back to the three-quarterback, four-quarterback type (of situation), bring them into camp and let them compete, as far as guys making each other better,” O’Connell said on Sunday. “But with Tom Brady playing there, they just want to kind of look for a young quarterback that they can maybe take in and groom.

“They have three very good quarterbacks there already. It’s going to be a good opportunity to come in and kind of get my feet wet in the NFL and learn from the best and just to continue to grow as a player and see where I can go from there.”

A senior year that saw him pass for 3,063 yards and 15 touchdowns and run for 408 yards and another 11 TDs has taken him nearly 2,600 miles from San Diego to Foxboro and a Patriots roster that already includes the three-time Super Bowl championship quarterback and his backups, Matt Cassel and Matt Gutierrez. The Patriots chose the 6-foot-5, 225-pound O’Connell in the third round, with the 94th overall pick in the weekend’s NFL draft.

“It’s going to be just an amazing opportunity to have Coach (Bill) Belichick, said O’Connell. “In talking to Coach Belichick, it really seems like they drafted me because they think that I’m going to come in and work hard and learn my role and thrive in whatever role that might be.”

“I think I’m looking forward to that and being able to be around guys like Randy Moss and Wes Welker and, of course, Tom Brady. It’s going to be the perfect platform for me to develop into the best possible player I can become.”

After red-shirting his first year on the San Diego State campus, O’Connell started the last five games of the 2004 season, guiding the Aztecs to a couple of wins, becoming the first player in Aztecs history to pass for 200 yards (229) and throw for 100 (101) in the same game, a 49-16 loss at Brigham Young University, and finishing the year as a team captain — a role he retained the rest of his college career.

The La Costa Canyon (Carlsbad, Calif.) High School product closed his career at San Diego State with 664 completions in 1,151 attempts for 7,689 yards and 46 TDs with 34 interceptions. He carried the ball 386 times for 1,312 yards and another 19 TDs.

“O’Connell is a big, strong, athletic quarterback (who) runs well,” Belichick said. “He played on a passing team in a passing league (Mountain West Conference), obviously not behind a real good line so he was kind of on the run a little bit, but I thought he held in there and did a pretty good job of being productive (and) making good decisions. A lot of times, he was under a lot of pressure.”

Asked his greatest attribute, O’Connell answered: “I would probably say my toughness and my ability to go through adversity and continue to play at a fairly high level.

“I think that’s one of the great things that makes Tom Brady so special and I know watching him over the course of his career, I’ve been a fan of the way he carries himself throughout the ball game and the way he’s able to lead his teammates in comebacks, and the late-game heroics are there to be seen. When adversity hits him, it’s almost impossible to see because he doesn’t let the play-to-play actions affect him and he just continues to play at a high level.

“That’s something that I’ve tried to emulate,” said O’Connell, “but to be able to be around him on a day-to-day basis and kind of watch everything that he does from film study to work ethic to dealing with his teammates is going to be an amazing opportunity for me.”